“Yes,” Julius said, elbowing Marci until she nodded too. “Now can we go?”
Rather than answer, Chelsie leaned down and scooped her Fang off the ground, sheathing the sword in a smooth motion before climbing into the truck. Julius closed the door behind her, cursing under his breath when he saw more security vehicles coming toward them down the road. “Marci?”
“Already on it,” she said, jumping into the driver’s side and reaching up to tap the circle of spellwork she’d written on the underside of the truck’s roof the last time she’d had to sneak away from Algonquin. “Gird your loins.”
The illusion washed over the truck before she finished, leaving Julius standing beside what looked like empty space. Fortunately, it still felt like a truck when he climbed inside, becoming invisible himself as well the moment he passed through the door.
“Now remember, we can only do this when we’re out in the boonies,” Marci’s disembodied voice whispered beside him. “I hope I don’t have to explain the dangers of driving an invisible car in actual traffic.”
Julius nodded before he remembered she couldn’t see him. He still kept his mouth shut, piloting their invisible truck out of the parking lot and between the incoming lines of Algonquin’s anti-dragon task force trucks. Only when they’d made it through the flashing lights back to the semi-inhabited University Heights neighborhood where Marci had lived when he’d first met her did Julius finally release the breath he’d been holding. “I think we’re clear.”
Marci must have agreed, because the invisibility illusion vanished seconds later to reveal her grinning face. “Quality spellwork,” she said proudly. “Take the time to do it right, and it works the first time, every time.”
“Very high quality,” Julius agreed, flashing her a thankful look before turning to check on his sister. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Chelsie said quietly. She was sitting as far from the two of them as possible, leaning against the passenger door with her sword in her lap and her eyes locked on the dark road ahead. “I can’t remember anything after the fight with Vann Jeger.”
“That’s probably because of Estella,” Julius said quickly. “But it’s okay. We made it, and now we’re going to get you somewhere safe.”
He finished with a smile that was meant to be comforting, but Chelsie’s eyes were as cold and hard as green stones when they met his. “Do you have my phone?”
That seemed like a weird question, but Julius didn’t comment as he pulled it out of his pocket and handed the device over. “Bob called you,” he explained quickly. “That’s how I knew how to say the…um…thing I’m not supposed to mention.”
Chelsie nodded, though she didn’t actually seem to be listening. She was just staring at her phone with an odd expression.
“What’s wrong?” he asked nervously.
“We’ll find out when we get back to your house,” she said, closing her eyes. “I need to recover. Wake me up when we get there.”
Julius shifted nervously. But before he could think of a polite way to ask how she could possibly sleep at a time like this, Chelsie was out, curled in the corner with her head resting on the passenger window.
The sight filled him with decidedly mixed feelings. Happy as he was that his sister trusted him enough to sleep in his presence, he was also afraid that the sleep wasn’t by choice. Whatever had just happened to Chelsie, it clearly wasn’t over yet. But there wasn’t anything he could do for her in the car, so Julius forced himself to turn back to the road, manually adjusting the pickup’s ancient controls to avoid as many potholes as possible as they raced down the ruler-straight streets back to the glittering, double-layered city rising like a cliff face in front of them.
***
Amelia was waiting when they got home, sitting on the porch steps in the ill-fitting dress Marci had given her with a half-empty bottle of whiskey dangling from her fingers. She set it down as soon as they pulled in, pushing herself to her feet with a pained grin. “You lived!” she cried happily. “I guess that means we…What happened to you?”
This was directed at Chelsie, who half-stumbled, half-fell out of the passenger door the second the truck stopped moving. “I’m fine,” she muttered, regaining her balance. “Get inside.”
“Fine?” Amelia cried. “You’re missing half your magic!” Her eyes turned murderous. “Did one of Algonquin’s mages do this?”
“No,” Marci said sheepishly, scooting out of the truck behind Chelsie. “It was me.”
“Because I told her to,” Chelsie snapped.
“And why would you do something stupid like that?” Amelia snapped back. “Was your life not complicated enough already?”
Chelsie’s reply to that was a silent glare, leaving Amelia steaming. “What bit her?” she grumbled, crossing her arms with a hurt look as Chelsie marched up the steps into the house. “And why is she naked? Did she fight Vann Jeger as a dragon?” Her face turned spooked. “Do we need to start digging an air raid shelter?”
“No,” Julius said, shutting down the car. “We beat Vann Jeger. Well, really Marci did, but—”
“It was a team effort,” Marci interrupted, though she still beamed when Amelia gave her two thumbs up.
“—we’ve got another problem,” Julius continued. “Chelsie was attacked by Estella.”
For the first time since they’d arrived, Amelia was speechless, and Julius took advantage of the lull to get her back into the house.
Inside, they found Chelsie lying in what had been Amelia’s spot on the bloody couch with her head back and her eyes shut. Amelia, who probably shouldn’t have been standing either, sat down on the couch’s arm with an uncharacteristically grim expression. “Are you cold?”
